A Study on the Economic Problems of Urban Low-income Families

도시 저소득층소비자의 경제문제에 관한 연구 - 서울과 인천의 주부를 중심으로

This study attempts to explain the income and consumption problems of urban low-income consumers and to explore factors of their poverty. For the purpose of this study, interviews were conducted with 124 low-income home managers. All the subjects live in Seoul and Inchon. The major findings are: First, low-income families seriously suffer from low income and small property. And the degree of economic hardship is the most serious with wife-working families whose husbands have no job or are dead. Second, low-income consumers have low budgeting and purchasing skill. Third, low-income consumers have 'doing' orientation but have fatalistic value orientation. This study suggests that it is necessary to develop an integrative measurement of economic hardship. It also suggests that low level of low-income consumer's skill can be well explained in terms of man-nature value orientation.